


you were in college working part time waiting tables

by little_drop_of_chlorine



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Diner!AU, F/M, Julie is anxious bc I’m protecting, Luke not understanding emotions, Mostly Fluff, based on prompt, bobby doesn’t exist, how do people tag things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-19 05:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29621631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/little_drop_of_chlorine/pseuds/little_drop_of_chlorine
Summary: came into contact with a prompt list, and got inspire for some Juke nonsensePrompt #5: “I am not who you think I am, I’m just the waitress”AKA Luke doesn’t take in his surroundings and mistakes a pretty waitress for Alex
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 3
Kudos: 166





	you were in college working part time waiting tables

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! 
> 
> This is me pretending I don’t have a multi-chapter fic that I haven’t updated since the dawn of time and instead posting a one-shot because...I can. 
> 
> The motivation to write has completely abandoned me, but I was able to bust this one out in like, an hour, so, there may be some mistakes. Hope you enjoy!

Luke was having a rough day. Waking up late coupled with an assigned essay and finalized with a call from his mom once again asking him to reconsider his major. She always said she would be willing to foot the entire bill if he elected to switch, even though he was already on a full-ride music scholarship. After eight hours of non-stop attack from the universe, Luke shoved open the door of Ray’s Diner, the little bell ringing at his entrance. 

Ray’s had been an absolute paradise during Luke’s freshman year of college. Reggie had discovered it in their first week, and demanded that both Alex and Luke join him the next time. Once they had tried the food, Sunset Curve had never eaten anywhere else. The food was amazing, it was never crowded, and the staff was friendly. Checked all of the boxes in his book. 

Shooting a quick text to Alex, he headed over to their usual booth in the back of the small restaurant. He whipped out his songbook and started at the blank page for nearly five minutes before slamming it shut in frustration. Luke could write a variety of songs with a variety of emotions, but frustration never made good music no matter how hard he tried. 

Instead of writing, he decided to get a start on his essay for music theory since he knew he wasn’t going to get it done this weekend. Not for any reason in particular, Luke was just really good at procrastinating. But as it turns out, trying to write an essay while annoyed and exhausted out of your mind doesn’t go to well either, and after getting halfway through his intro, Luke has to stop in order to preserve his sanity. 

Slamming his head back against the wall, he cranes his head to check for Alex before taking on his phone and beginning the mindless scroll through Instagram. He takes a quick look at the band's profile. They were almost to a full 100k followers, which blew his mind, and made him beyond excited. Two years in and they were already pretty popular. Where would they be in another two? 

Encouraged by the comments on their last post and a few fan DM’s, he takes out his notebook again to take another crack at writing, this time with a little success. Scraping out a few lines, he almost doesn’t notice the figure that approaches his table and clears their throat.

Not wanting to be broken from his trance he just holds up a finger, telling Alex not to say anything until this last line is written out. Except Alex clears his throat again. It sounds different then usual, maybe Alex is coming down with something? 

“Alex, dude. Gimme a second.” He mumbles under his breath, his fast handwriting barely legible as he mentally tries to work out the chorus. But then Alex taps him lightly on the shoulder and he lets out a groan. 

“I promise I’m almost done this line. Sit down, it’ll only take a few seconds. With the day I’ve had it’s a miracle I can write at all. So just cool it, would ya?” He couldn’t help the little bit of exasperation that seeped into his voice at his friend. But Alex would understand, Luke always got like this when writing a song. But then…

“I’m not Alex, I’m just the waitress.” Luke snaps his head up immediately. It really wasn’t Alex. Instead, a dark-skinned, curly haired girl in a white polo and black pants was standing beside him, notepad in her hands, looking exasperated. 

In that moment Luke registered three things:

He had held up his finger at the waitstaff like a complete jerk  
He had been...really rude when he thought she was Alex  
She was super pretty

He shoved that third realization into the back of his brain and instead elected to try and apologize profusely for being a stuck up customer. 

“O-oh crap. I am so sorry. I-I didn’t realize. I thought you were my friend. I’m waiting on him. I promise, I wasn’t trying to be rude, I didn’t mean - “ His rushed apology was met with light laughter from the (really really pretty) waitress. 

“It’s okay. Trust me, it’s not the most rude way I’ve been treated while working here. Now, can I get you anything?” She raised back up her notepad, and gave him the most brilliant ‘customer-service’ smile he had ever seen. After remembering how to breathe, he mumbled out something (it might have been his regular order? He didn’t really know. His brain was short circuiting). 

She wrote down whatever it was he said, and began to walk back towards the kitchen before she quickly whipped around and nodded at his page. 

“The bridge is too long. It makes the song off beat.” She was speaking so quietly, it was almost a whisper, but it was like she was screaming. He looked from her to the song and then back again, a wide grin spilling his face. Not trusting himself to speak, he just nodded, hoping she understood that he appreciated her advice. She gave him a small smile in return before scurrying off to the back. 

Luke sat in silence for a few moments, staring blankly at the wall. Firstly, pretty girl. Secondly, pretty girl knows music well enough to fix a song that she had seen for thirty seconds in someone else’s notebook? He was dumbfounded. 

Eventually, Alex did show up, but he had to wave his hand in front of Luke's face for a couple seconds to get his attention. Pretty Girl brought his food and took Alex’s order, Luke staring at her like a creep the whole time. She didn’t mention their previous interaction at all, and Luke wondered if she had even registered it as important. 

But then, as she was about to take back Alex’s order, she glanced down at his still open notebook, where he had rearranged the wording to make it shorter, just like she had said. Her face lit up, and she met his eyes with a small nod of approval before darting off again. Alex watched the interaction with intrigue, and the moment she was gone he leaned forward. 

“What was that?” Luke snapped his head back around from watching Pretty Girl leave. Shrugging, he returned to his food. 

“I...don’t know what you’re talking about.” He shoved his fork around his plate. He had, in fact, made his usual order of a weirdly amazing pasta dish. 

‘Luke. You’re a terrible liar.” He shrugged again. 

“She made a comment on my song before you got here and helped me fix it. That’s all.” And yeah, to a normal person, that didn’t mean a lot. But to Luke? He was almost ready to propose on the spot. Alex knew it too, barking out a laugh. 

“So you’re in love with the Ray’s waitress?” Luke glared at him from across the table. 

“No. She helped me with a song, I thanked her, end of story.” Alex clearly didn’t believe him, but then Pretty Girl was back with his food, and he had the sense not to say anything. Luke definitely did not almost have a heart attack when she smiled at him. Most certainly not. 

***

A few weeks later, they went back to Ray’s. Luke was 100% sure that he would never see Pretty Girl again, because what were the odds? Ray’s had a ton of staff members for such a small place, and the band rarely saw the same person twice. But, the moment they walked in, he was met with the sight of Pretty Girl taking the order of pre-existing customers. 

Immediately, Luke darted to the back table again, momentarily leaving Alex and Reggie behind to catch up. He hid behind his menu as Alex laughed at him and explained the story to a very confused Reggie. Reggie came to the same conclusion that Alex did: that Luke was in love with a nameless girl who they had never really met. 

He ignored them and grumbled out something along the lines of ‘not true’ (even though it totally was). Luke somehow rationalized in his mind that since the chances of her being in charge of their section of the restaurant were slim, then he could take it his notebook and work on a song that had been giving him some trouble. 

He got lost in his own world, which was unfortunate because he didn’t hear Alex and Reggie’s snickers that would have signaled a coming disaster. What did end u[ shattering his concentration though was a slim finger, reaching across his notebook and tapping the section that was being a pain. 

“Bring this part down an octave, it’ll provide contrast to the rest of the song and make it pop without changing the overall style.” Luke froze. It was actually a perfect solution, and he felt like an idiot for not thinking of it himself. Immediately, he smacked himself on the forehead, and scribbled out what he had down, replacing it with the much better alternative. 

“Dang. Can we keep you?” Reggie whispered in awe. “He’s been complaining about that song for days now.” Pretty Girl let out a shy laugh. 

“No seriously,” Luke said, equally in awe of this girl. “That was perfect. Thank you.” She locked eyes with him and smiled. 

“No problem. Now, can I get you guys anything?” She took down their orders and then walked away, Luke watching her go. She was really...something. Another person brought out their food though, and Luke didn’t want to be creepy and ask where their original waitress was. He was kinda disappointed that he wasn’t able to get her name this time and the guys kept poking fun at him about it. 

But, right as they were getting up to leave, Pretty Girl whirled out of the kitchen and approached their table. Not meeting his eyes, she simply stared at Luke’s feet. 

“Uh. I work on Thursday and Sunday evenings. If, y’know. You ever need another idea for your music.” Luke just stood there, swaying. It was Reggie who eventually piped up for him.

“Oh, you will definitely be seeing us again then Ms…?” Reggie trailed off. 

“Julie. I’m Julie.” She smiled, finally looking up at their faces. Then, she checked her watch and began to back away. “I’ve got work to do. I’ll uh, see you guys around then?” 

“Absolutely.” Luke hadn’t realized his mouth was moving until the word came out, but when her face lit up like Christmas, he couldn’t bring himself to be embarrassed. 

***

It almost became a ritual for Luke. On Thursday’s and Sunday’s, he would get to Ray’s right at six o’clock, sometimes with the guys, sometimes on his own  
He would slid into his booth and take out his notebook, sometimes with fresh songs, sometimes with old songs, and sometimes with an empty page. And there he would wait until Julie came out with her little notepad and smile. 

On the days where he already had stuff written, she would only come over once or twice to take his order (though he got the same thing every time) and bring his food. She would fix his music while she was there. But his favorite times were the times where he didn’t have anything, and he suspected they were her favorite too. 

Because when he didn’t have anything written, Julie would call her hands together and slide into the seat across from him, asking him what he was in the mood to write. He always made sure it wasn’t crowded when he did this, he didn’t want to get Julie into trouble for not working. But, there she would stay for most of the night, passing his notebook back and forth, laughing and writing and humming tunes. 

After a few weeks of this ‘ritual’,he worked up the courage to ask for her number, claiming that he would sometimes wanted her advice even when she wasn’t working. Julie was more than happy to oblige. 

Weeks turned into months, and soon it felt like he had known Julie his whole life, and he almost couldn’t imagine making music without her. She made life ever so slightly brighter, putting things with his parents into perspective, helping him with homework, even one time picking up all three of them at 2 am because their car had broken down on their way home from a gig. 

And that was where things got...weird. Because he had called her as a last resort, and she had come without even asking questions. But when she did finally ask what they were doing, she seemed shocked to find out they were in a band. 

“Oh.” Was what she had said. “I thought you guys were just music students.” 

“Nope.” Reggie exclaimed with a pop of his lips. “We’re Sunset Curve, tell your friends.” Julie had nodded and then not spoken for the rest of the ride. 

When he texted her the next day, curious about what she thought of this chorus he had come up with, she said, and he quoted ‘it looks fine.’ He texted her again, and again over the next few days, but he could never get much out of her. Her answers were short and borderline snappy. 

Finally, Sunday rolled around. He practically sprinted down to Ray’s at six, desperate to talk to her in person about what he had done wrong to make her so upset at him. He planted himself in his booth, took out his notebook and put it on a blank page. He waited for nearly half an hour before he saw her, and he practically leapt out of his seat. 

“Julie! Hey!” She gave a wary smile and a nod. It was almost painful. He didn’t understand what he had done, and had been wracking his brain for days trying to figure it out. He could sense something brewing and he didn’t like it in the slightest. 

“Julie, did I- did I do something?” He asked as she slowly slid into the seat. She just stared at his empty notebook, not answering. “Becasue if I did, it was completely unintentional and I want to fix it.” She still didn’t answer. He reached his hands across the table and took her hands in his. “Please?” He whispered. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She whispered in return. 

“Tell you what?” Now he was just more confused. 

“That you were in a band?” Her voice was hurt and pained, and he knew that he had put that there, but he didn’t understand how. 

“It just...never came up. I’m sorry, is that was this is about? The band?” She nodded.

“I mean. I thought...I dunno. That the music we made was...special? In a way?” Her voice was starting to get warbled, and there was a stabbing feeling in his gut that this probably was the first time she had cried about this. “But finding out that you make music like ours with a bunch of other people just...put things in perspective is all.” 

He watched her, frozen for a second. 

“What?” He asked, bewildered. “Julie that...that doesn’t make any sense.” She looked up from their still interlocked hands, angry, but he just kept going. “Of course our music is special. Why wouldn’t it be?” She titled her head ever so slightly, looking like an adorable puppy.

“Because you have an entire group of people who you make better music with? Successful music, too. I looked you guys up after the other night. Sunset Curve could own the Hollywood scene in just a few years.” Luke understood that there was a lot to unpack there, but mostly he just heard that she liked their music. And believed in them. And then he slowly computed everything else she had blurted out and jerked straight up. 

“Julie, absolutely not.” He said, almost laughing. “You’re like the only person who has the patience to write with me. Everyone else gets annoyed by my, what does Alex call it? Over exuberance?” Julie gave a watery giggle at that. “Or my terrible handwriting.” 

“I promise,” he whispered again, “our music is special to me. And so are you.” He hadn’t meant to say that last part, but she looked up from their hands with such a soft, warm look on her face that his entire face went bright red. She squeezed his hands lightly. 

“You’re important to me too.” Her voice was so quiet it was hard to hear her. She pulled her hands away to wipe at the few tears that had escaped her eyes, and Luke immediately missed her comforting warmth. “Sorry I overreacted.” She mumbled, looking guilty. He shook his head so hard, he almost snapped his neck. 

“No, don’t apologize. I probably would have done the same thing. And besides, your emotions are valid.” She reached for his hands again, and he grabbed them immediately. Probably a little too quickly though, because she giggled a little bit before biting her lip and meeting his eyes. 

“I like this.” She said, running her thumbs over his hands. He stared at her for a second before a massive grin took over his face. 

“Yeah?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Well,” he broke their (very intense) eye contact to look at their hands again. “I like this too.” Hesitating only slightly, he brought their joined hands up to his lips and kissed her hand lightly before setting them back down. Looking up, she was bright red. And then she burst out laughing. 

“W-what?” He was absolutely humiliated. Had he misread the situation? She hadn’t let go of his hands yet, but she was near hysterics.

“Y-you can’t just do that!” She managed before succumbing again to her laughter. “How am I going to top that?” Luke smiled at her, still blushing from embarrassment. 

“Uhh...I’m not sure?” He snorted a little, she was beginning to recover from her laughing fit. “So, if I were to ask you out on a date…” He hesitated, knowing that if he messed this up, then he would lose one of the greatest people in his life. She smiled, bringing his still intertwined hands closer to her. 

“Then I would say yes.” She suddenly surged forward, and he met her halfway across the table in what was probably the messiest and most perfect kiss in the entire history of the world (in Luke's opinion). 

**

“And to think,” he would say years and years later as they walked hand in hand towards their wedding reception, “this whole thing started with me mistaking you for Alex.” 

But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> *trumpet nosies* 
> 
> Did you like it? I hope you did. I’m pretty proud of this one. Might do another one of the prompts soon. Later gators! 
> 
> Story Title from ‘Mine’ by Taylor Swift


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